<p>My D was in a similar situation - at a very competative magnet school, which specializes in math/sciences and sends most students to the ivies or similar (top LACs) or our flagship State Us (UVA or Va Tech). She felt she had different things to offer (though she did fine at school (bs and as) and tests very high - math/sciences did not ending up being her passion). At many of these schools she would be competing for entry against a lot of her High School classmates. Her GC helped her put together a search for possibilities based on her preferences and come up with a list of excellent schools that were not on all the other kids’ radar. She ended up at a small LAC that was across the country - the first from her school to attend. Loves it there. We really found that though the ivies and the state schools are constant favs - other schools seem to trend “popular” based on someone getting in somewhere and loving it, someone “discovering” a school and enthusing to friends about it and so on. On the other hand - of her class - some of the kids who made off beat choices are the happiest with them. The reality is that there are a lot of choices out there and those colleges that appear on the initial list are not neccessarily the best match.</p>
<p>Re: #38</p>
<p>Stuy and the other public magnets in NYC limit the # of private colleges to which you can apply. Nobody tells you which you can apply to–but the # is limited. You can apply to as many SUNYs and even out of state publics as you want. </p>
<p>The schools have good grids or scattergrams and if you’re being unrealistic, the GCs will let you know that. </p>
<p>The # to which you can apply has gone up over the past ten years. Still, there’s a limit. And my understanding is that when a kid gets in somewhere early action, the GCs ask that you withdraw as many other apps as possible. (They will consider fin aid, etc., but do their best to limit trophy hunting.)</p>
<p>even back in the 1960’s- NYC public HS’s limited the amount of applications you could send out. The reason being that the administrative office could not handle processing more than a certain amount of requests. Remember you’re talking NYC HS’s. My graduating class had over 800 kids and that was considered small for Brooklyn.
I remember we could do the CUNY application (and put the schools in choice order) and 3 applications to other colleges including individual SUNY’s and private colleges. Once you got a rejection, you were able to send out another application.<br>
Back in the day- a CUNY application and 3 other schools was usually sufficient. Almost everyone I know went to either a CUNY or SUNY school.</p>
<p>I think quota is the wrong word to use. I doubt any college lays down the law and says “we’re taking 3 kids from HS A and 5 from HS B.”</p>
<p>However, given how competitive admissions is and that many schools have a stated goal of diversity – yes, I think selective colleges have loose limits on how many they will select from a high school. Stuyvesant may have 80 qualified applicants applying to Ivy X, and Ivy X probably doesn’t say it’ll only take 5 of them, but I seriously doubt Ivy X would accept all 80 – or even 50, no matter how accomplished and amazing those 80 kids are. Ivy X doesn’t want 5 or 8 percent of its freshman class to be from the same school. I’m totally guessing here, but I would imagine colleges set a range – we’d like to accept between 5 and 20 kids from Stuyvesant.</p>
<p>I think it is all handled on a case-by-case basis, but I have had an admissions person tell me that his college does compare applicants from the same high schools. I look at it this way – if the acceptance rate at a college is 20 percent, and 5 kids from one high school apply, odds are that only one is getting in. Are there times that 2 or 3 or 4 get in – perhaps. But that’s beating the odds.</p>
<p>The 800+ graduating classes are, no doubt, the basis for alos allowing teachers to limit the number references they write (see post #31) - - and this was at one of the sci-high test schools in NYC.</p>
<p>Bigger graduating classes mean more teachers. No teacher is going to be teaching more than 6 or 7 periods a day with 30 or so students. And in most cases not all of those classes will be seniors. There are about 700 in the graduating class in our school and I haven’t heard about any rationing of recommendations. I really feel that students should be able to get recommendations from the teachers that know them best, and of course it’s nice to have them from ones who can write eloquently too - though I don’t know how you can find that out in advance!</p>
<p>
That’s no doubt true. But in the 1970s I think my class at Yale had 45 kids from Andover in it (3.33%), and 30-some from Exeter. And that was enrollments, not acceptances.</p>
<p>Though not related to the quota discussion, one of truly wonderful prep/day school college office procedure was having the teacher submit their letters to the guidance staff. Prior to forwarding the letters, the guidance staffe would review the letters for grammar, tone and accuracy. </p>
<p>This prevented any of the applicants from being unintentionally dammed with faint praise and or undermined by poorly drafted or formulaic letters. It also meant that the guidance staff knew which teachers historically needed aid in drafting letters; the college office made a point of getting those letters very early in the process, so that revisions could be made well in advance of application deadlines.</p>
<p>Sadly, this would be difficult to replicate at a school where GCs were responsible for large numbers of students.</p>
<p>JHS – I think things have changed a lot in the last 30 years, so I don’t think it’s appropriate to compare the situation in the 1970s to today. </p>
<p>I had a conversation this winter with someone who went to a prestigious prep school, and his kids are there now. And he told me there is a big difference where graduates from this high school went in 1975 and where they are going now. Yes, back then 90% or more went to Ivies and top-ranked LACs – but not now. While it is true that a high percentage today are still going to these schools, it is a much smaller percentage than it was 30 years ago.</p>
<p>At the top schools, 90% of the class still attends Ivy or top LACs, but more schools are now in that top group. According to the matriculation list at D’s school of the approx 230 students, 25% of the class enrolled at HYP, and over 90% enrolled at top schools (usn&wr top 25) - - but new additions to the top schools list include: Pomona, CMC, Harvey Mudd, Grinnell, Carleton, Bates and Davidson. Less well ranked schools, all in usn&wr top 40, atteded by the remaining 10% included Macalaster, Barnard, Bard and Trinity.</p>
<p>Not related, but Foolishpleasure…did you pick your screen name after the famous racehorse?</p>
<p>Yes, also considered BoldChapeau.</p>
<p>I have to question your data, foolishpleasure. When the Wall St. Journal did its two high school rankings, no school came anywhere near sending 25% of its class to HYP. And 25% of a class of 230 is 57 students, or an average of 19 to each of those colleges. I don’t think there’s any school anywhere that’s averaging that many kids per class at all three HYPs. (Small NYC schools like Brearley or Trinity may be sending 25% of their classes to HYP, but that’s four kids per college, not 20.)</p>
<p>I think possibly the definition of Ivy vs HYP might be the issue here. Do you include Stanford or other schools? For the first time ever, my child’s top BS had more kids attending Stanford over the past 4 years vs Harvard with four out of five kids turning Harvard down this year. </p>
<p>As eluded to earlier, the “ivies” no longer have a corner on the market in Q education like they used to … they are still great schools but there are many others as well … from what I have read.</p>
<p>I’m with JHS. I assume school in post the post #50 is Brearley/Collegiate/Trinity or similar school. Small school report matric stats for a 4-5 year period, which would account for the 230 figure. With only about 50 -60 students in a graduating class, the actual numbers are more like 13-16/year to HYP - - but that number is for just HYP; the number jumps to 50% if you throw in other Ivies and top unis (Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Duke, MIT, Stanford, etc.). </p>
<p>I think the HYP stats are far less impressive than the overall matriculation (admissions stats are even better because some kids get multiple acceptances). Lots of schools get a couple of kids into HYP - - but getting the 80-90% of the class into top schools (even w/ a small class) is hard to beat.</p>